London, 1997: Martini & Jopparelli discover Drum N’ Bass

Science dropped by Martini & Jopparelli. Mar-05-2007

Summer 1997: Martini & Jopparelli were in London on vacation, 4 o’clock in the morning, turn on the radio, searchin for some hip hop music… Surprise: there is no hip hop, but a local radio plays a dope show every night where mc’s and dj’s in constant rotation spit rhymes over some crazy drum n bass beats. “Hey Marty, i like this, put the tape in, let’s record it!”… “Hey listen here, they have mobb deep vocals sampled over a 160 BPM beat! These London djs must be insane…”

Ten years later, that tapes still sound cool! A taste of rough drum n bass session straight from London’s underground. So, we decided to share these tapes as an example of how good drum n bass music can be. This is tape number 1, which is also full of hip hop and funk samples. Years before the breakbeat movement came in, London crews were already sampling rap and funk music… you’ll easily spot samples from:

If you want to explore the origins of drum n bass, check this mini-documentary by Nate Harrison: “Can I get an Amen?”. This is the story of the drum sample which originated Drum n’Bass music : the Winston’s Amen Brother (Listen IT). A very interesting story, this sample was also used for many hip hop songs (one for all: NWA’s “straight outta compton”), but its influence on drum n’bass music is huge: “hundreds of tracks, dozens of djs, a number of clubs and events, in effect an entire subculture based on this drum loop, i mean based on six seconds from 1969…..”

Finally, i want to give you nothing less than my favourite drum n’ bass track of all times, Ganja Kru’s “Super Sharp Shooter”. This track is simply perfect: ten years later, still a party banger…

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yes, yes, yes… i remember the times… back then it wasn’t even called drum’n'bass, they called it jungle… it was crazy because even the biggest stores in london we’re playing jungle/d’n'b as background music… nice tape and thanks for sharing it…
mike

i can’t stand drum and bass anymore…it’s so repetitive…there are great djs who always play here in brighton, such as zinc,grooverider,fabio,hype, etc…but the people that goes to these night have such an attitude i rather spend my night somewehere else…back then the sound was more ruff and interesting…especially when it was jungle, now it just got boring…

[...] to consider that. I said naturally because Hip Hop and Drum’n’bass are really link up, check DJ Chucky if you want an example of what I am talking about. He also shaped his music on some classic artists [...]